Annual Meeting

Preservation Section Program & Business Meeting 2019: Joint Meeting with the Technical Subcommittee on Archival Facilities Guidelines (TS-AFG):
Sustainability and Cultural Heritage: The State of SAA and the Allied Professions
Saturday, August 3, 1:00pm-3:00pm (no room number yet).

Join us for a presentation and facilitated discussion on the current state of sustainable practices throughout the cultural heritage community. We’ll define sustainability in the context of collecting organizations, highlight reformulated standards, and examine SAA's current efforts toward understanding sustainability within the profession. See the Sched program description.

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the advent of sustainable practices throughout the cultural heritage community, ranging from redefined standards and best practices to broaden discussions and understanding of what sustainability means in the context of collecting organizations including archives, museums, and libraries. This session will:

Outline recent changes to standards and best practices documents in the interest of sustainable preservation practices;
Introduce current sustainability activities from among the cultural heritage professional organizations, including AIC, AAM, AASLH, as well as allied professions such as ASHRAE,
Discuss broadened, more inclusive understandings of sustainability in cultural heritage (it's not just about being green!)
Identify sustainability recommendations and practices in the forthcoming, updated Archival and Special Collections Facilities Guidelines;
and examine SAA's own current efforts toward understanding sustainability within the profession.

The talk will be followed by a facilitated discussion of possible next steps to consider, both as archivists committed to preservation of our institutional holdings, and as members of SAA as a whole. Questions considered could potentially include:

What commitments to sustainable practices might SAA consider as a professional organization;
How to increase awareness or educational opportunities for sustainability in professional education;
Suggestions for research and best practices development in day-to-day workflow processes (recycling, product and material selection, etc.)

Comments and suggestions from the discussion will be gathered and collated by the Preservation Section, shared with Council, and used to help inform future efforts in developing recommendations for sustainability practices in archival repositories by the Technical Subcommittee for Archival Facilities Guidelines and the Preservation Section, as well as other interested groups within SAA.

Each year below provides details about the section meeting at the Society of American Archivists' annual conference.

2018 Annual Meeting Information

2017 Annual Meeting Information

2016 Annual Meeting Information

2015 Annual Meeting Information

2014 Annual Meeting Information

2013 Annual Meeting Information

2012 Annual Meeting Information

2011 Annual Meeting Information